Analysis of a Scene from Luhrmanns Production of Romeo and Juliet Essa

Analysis of a Scene from Luhrmann's Production of Romeo and Juliet It seems interesting at first that Baz Luhrmann should choose to rework Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a modern movie. However, when you think about the aims of a modern film-maker such as wanting to really affect the audience and create a series of moving and powerful images shot through with dialogue, then it is less surprising that Romeo and Juliet was Luhrmann's choice. Shakespeare's play is filled with emotion and suspense, so had limitless potential to be made into a great movie. Luhrmann adapted the play for the big screen very effectively, managing to portray the emotion of the film using visual storytelling techniques that had not been available to Shakespeare at the time he wrote and staged it, for example elaborate sets. One of the scenes where Luhrmann portrays the emotion and drama of the story superbly is Act 3, Scene 1. It is possible to consider how effectively Luhrmann adapted this scene by studying the different techniques he employed in reworking it from the play into part of a movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack complements the movie, and was used in this particular scene to help set the mood. Music in the movie is used to build tension, convey emotions and create links between other scenes in the movie. For example, whenever the viewer sees Tybalt and the Capulet boys together, wild western music can be distinctly heard. Be it at the petrol station in the opening of the movie or on Verona beach, the wild western music is consistently associated with them. When they walk onto the beach out of their car, the way they swagger ... ...ecide what to include and how to shoot the scene to convey the emotion that fuels it, indeed one of Luhrmann's main concerns when shooting this movie was staying true to Shakespeare's original play. Luhrmann had an advantage over Shakespeare in that he could visually show a lot of the emotion and feeling that Shakespeare had to have his characters explain when he staged it. Where Luhrmann has omitted text from the original play, he has shown the emotion that was expressed in the text through the actions of characters and, among other factors, sets, lighting and music. So while Shakespeare supplied the wonderful story behind Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, it is Luhrmann who successfully turned the play into a modern day movie that stayed true to Shakespeare's play while being suited to a modern day audience.